CNU shuts down Hampden-Sydney 17-7

NEWPORT NEWS -- Christopher Newport has plenty of signature wins in the first 12 years of its football history: Bridgewater, Rowan, Mary Hardin-Baylor, playoff games against Salisbury and Muhlenberg.

But the Captains’ first two weeks of 2013, and Saturday’s 17-7 win over Hampden-Sydney specifically, occupy a special place for head coach and program architect Matt Kelchner.

“The last two weeks have been as good as it gets,” Kelchner said. “We’ve beaten some big-time, top-rated teams. But for me, this is as good a win as it gets. This one really meant a lot to me.”

Kelchner wouldn’t elaborate on the reasons – he said it was personal.

“These guys don’t know anything about it,” Kelchner said, meaning several players seated in the postgame press conference. “This was a huge, significant win for me – as a coach, as a guy who’s part of this program, as a representative of this university. This is as big as … this one means a lot.”

The Captains are 2-0 for the first time thanks to a stout, resourceful defense and just enough offense against one of the better teams, and quarterbacks, they’ll see.

Before a Pomoco Stadium-record crowd of 6,675, Hampden-Sydney’s Nash Nance threw five interceptions, and the Tigers committed nine turnovers. The transfer from the University of Tennessee had as many picks Saturday as touchdown passes against CNU in last season’s 42-20 kneecapping by the Tigers.

Nance completed 45 of 72 passes for 364 yards, and the Tigers outgained CNU 408 yards to 272. Eleven times Hampden-Sydney ventured into CNU territory, but didn’t score until the final minute. Four of those drives ended on downs, six on turnovers.

“It was comically bad on our part, offensively,” said Hampden-Sydney coach Marty Favret, who guesstimated that 75 percent of his team’s offensive issues were self-inflicted.

“Give them credit,” Favret said. “They tackled the ball.”

The Tigers committed turnovers on five of six possessions during one span of the first half. By then, CNU had a 14-0 lead, courtesy of first-quarter touchdown runs by Paul Dukes and quarterback Marcus Morrast.

Hampden-Sydney also committed three penalties to extend CNU’s final drive of the first half, which ended with Mason Studer’s 42-yard field goal on the final play.

The Captains’ Vincent Bolden intercepted Nash on Hampden-Sydney’s first drive of the second half. CNU stopped the Tigers on downs each of the next two drives, and cornerback Cameron Barlow followed with his second interception of the game on a Nash overthrow.

Hampden-Sydney’s most promising drive, until it scored, ended with a Mitch Pereira fumble inside the CNU 5-yard line.

CNU linebacker Mic Edwards came up with two interceptions and a fumble recovery. Barlow had a fumble recovery, as did linebacker Tyler Portell.

“We, literally, just played our base defense,” said linebacker Evan Moog, who led the Captains with 14 tackles. “Coach wanted to make it as simple as possible, so that we could just play football. We knew they were going to throw a lot of stuff at us. We just wanted to line up and play defense.”

Portell said, “We knew the type of quarterback they had. We knew he was probably going to be the best quarterback this school has ever seen. We knew our secondary really had to step up this week, especially in practice. We knew they were going to try and go long on us. …

"Overall, we knew we had to stop their quarterback and the long game in the air. We came out tonight and did a pretty good job of it.”

“Our pass-rush lanes kept him compressed, so that he couldn’t break out and make a big play with his feet,” Kelchner said. “That’s when he can kill you, when he gets outside and then gives all his receivers a little bit more time to dip and duck. We kept him in there.”

Even with the Tigers’ generosity, CNU managed just three points in the final three quarters and none in the second half. Hampden-Sydney’s defense was every bit as effective as CNU’s, and the Captains managed just 112 yards in the second half.

“We scored enough to win,” Kelchner said. “This game, I don’t care, it could have been 2-0 and I’m jumping for joy; 52-50, I’m jumping for joy. We won. We had more points than they did. That’s all that mattered.”